The Dark Warrior

A group of soldiers stalked down the once-lively streets of Tempest, clad in the uniform of the Crystal Empire, some of whom had crystalline wings sprouting from their backs. Six years ago, this street would’ve been one of many in the Crystal Empire, bright and glistening with snow and crystals. Now, however, it was nothing more than a warzone, the result of a bloody war that had all but destroyed Equestria and the Crystal Empire.

“All clear so far,” said one of the soldiers to his commanding officer, his helmet distorting his voice

“Stay sharp, men… you never know where The Abomination could be hiding, waiting to pounce,” the commander said to his squad.

“Are… are the rumors true, sir? The rumors about The Freak? I heard his dark powers are greater and more terrible than even His Majesty,” said one of soldiers.

“I heard he could obliterate everything in a 50 yard radius, and that everywhere he goes… death follows,”said another.

”Yeah, they’re true all right, said the commanding officer. “I’m still surprised Celestia and Luna have been keeping him in line as well as they have. Creature like that, you’d think The Monster would answer to no one, not even Faust herself.”

Unbeknownst to the soldiers, the very being of which they spoke of was watching them. Perched on the rooftop of a crystalline building some 900 yards away was what would appear to be a human from a distance, but upon closer inspection, it could be decided that this creature was anything but. Its face was concealed by a demonic helmet, which also seemed to double as a respirator. It had razor-sharp talons, one on each finger, and wore jet-black armor that concealed the hideous infusion of flesh, bone, and machinery underneath. Attached to the belt her wore on the armor were ten cylindrical objects, each unique in their own way.

My name is Brandon Cain. Or, at least, it used to be before I died. Now, I am a monster, a freak, an abomination of flesh, bone, and machinery.

I am Galen Marek, or rather, Darth Starkiller.

I’m sure you’re wondering how exactly I ended up becoming a Sith Lord from a timeline that can be summed up as “Greedo Shot First.” Simple: I was killed in an accident. Somehow I woke up again, but when I did, I was transformed into Darth Starkiller. But, I’m sure that answer isn’t satisfying enough for you. However, a more detailed explanation will have to wait a moment or two. Right now, it’s time to have some fun.

With one small step the figure dropped down to the ground and caused a small shockwave upon impact. He smirked as he looked ahead and started running. He leaped over a few cars and caught up to the group on soldiers. Starkiller quickly pulled out two of the cylindrical objects on his waist. From the objects erupted two colored plasma blades, one red, the other a bright amethyst. Starkiller made a slashing motion as he ran past each soldier before grabbing the leader. Each soldier he’d passed by dropped down dead, cut cleanly in two.

“Heard you were looking for me… like what you see?” Starkiller asked the captain with his deep, dark, and slightly raspy voice. The captain could only gasp and grunt in response since he was grabbed by the throat, the talons on Starkiller’s hands making small streams of blood leak down as they dug into his neck.

“Oh what’s wrong? Can’t get a good breath of air?” Starkiller asked in a mockingly sympathetic tone. ”How do you think I feel when you assholes keep hunting me?” Starkiller then brought the man closer to him, so that the eyes behind the mask could peer into the stallion’s soul.

”To Hell with you! Tell all of your friends there that I send my greetings.”

On that last sentence, Starkiller had pulled back the plasma weapon that was in his other hand, before promptly ramming it into the soldier’s chest. The soldier screamed in agony as the red blade pierced his body. Finally, when the soldier was completely still and silent, Starkiller let his body fall to the ground and attached his weapon back onto his belt, before letting out an ear-piercing, predatory bird-like wail.

”Yo, Starkiller, you there?” asked a familiar female voice on Starkiller’s commlink.

“Loud and clear Achroma.” he replied. “What’s the good word today?”

”Get your ass to my location! We’re getting pinned down over here!” yelled Achroma.

“On my way, babe,” said Starkiller as he took a sprinter’s starting stance. With a powerful push of his legs, Starkiller began searching for Achroma’s troops. Swiftly detecting the soldiers, Starkiller, grabbed one of his weapons and activated it, this time bringing forth a bright blue blade.

”I’m here, bitches!” yelled Starkiller as he jumped off a rocky platform and impaled one of the Crystal Empire’s soldiers from behind. The warring Crystal Empire and Equestrian soldiers stopped to look at Starkiller as he kicked the corpse off of his blade.

”Oh, fuck, it’s The Freak! Kill him before he kills us all!” yelled one of the Crystal Empire soldiers, fear evident is his voice as he and his fellow soldiers raised their automatic rifles, swivled their turrets, and aimed their rocket launchers at Starkiller. The Equestrian soldiers, meanwhile, with confident smirks on their faces, merely took cover wherever they could and left their ultimate weapon to his work.

The Crystal Empire soldiers unleashed Hell upon upon Starkiller, whose weapon managed to disintegrate the bullets, while his telekinetic powers returned the rockets to sender, so to speak. As the enemy soldiers continued to attack him, one of them shouted something that sounded like, ”You can’t keep this up forever!”

”Watch me,” growled Starkiller.

Starkiller’s words fell on deaf ears as the soldiers continued to attack the creature, but their fear didn’t exactly help their aim any. Finally, Starkiller began channelling his energies and charging them up. As he did so, his feet left the ground, leaving him to float in midair. Finally, when his body felt like it couldn’t hold anymore power, Starkiller unleashed the energy in the form of a powerful blast that sent the soldiers flying through the air, their bodies broken.

Starkiller landed on the ground and let out a small chuckle. ”Useless dogs,” he grumbled.

“Nice work, as per usual, Captain.”

Starkiller turned around to find the Equestrian soldiers coming out of their hiding places. One of them, a caucasian woman with a pair of wings, one blue and feathery, the other shiny and metal, a rainbow patterned hairstyle and a scarred face wearing a black leather trench coat, a black tanktop, torn-up black pants with a black leather belt, on which were two pistols in their holsters, and black leather boots.

Starkiller’s smile was concealed by his mask. ”You expected anything less, Commander?” the cyborg asked his girlfriend.

Achroma Burst smiled. “Certainly not,” she said as she walked up to Starkiller and kissed the part of his mask were his lips would’ve been. Starkiller attempted to kiss her back, but his mask kept their lips apart.

”One day, Achroma, I’ll be able to kiss you properly," Starkiller told his lover.

Achroma gave Starkiller a sultry look. “Just because we can’t kiss doesn’t mean we haven’t had some wild times,” she said.

”True to that.”

“Say, neither of you answered my question,” said a caucasian woman with a long pink hair style that partially covered her face and who was wearing a similar outfit to Achroma. “How exactly do these ‘wild times’ of yours work when Mr. Roboto can’t even take off his armor- HURK!”

The woman began to clutch at her throat like something was choking her. Starkiller had his clawed hand outstretched, and there seemed to be a loud vibrating sound coming from somewhere.

”Here’s an answer for you, Pinkamena Diane Pie: that’s none of your damn business. What Achroma and I do in private is supposed to be private, meaning keep your nose out,” growled Starkiller.

“Honey, what have I told you about using the Force to strangle fellow soldiers?” said Achroma.

”Ah, yes, of course, dear,” said Starkiller, releasing his telekinetic grip on Pinkamena, who fell to the ground, breathing heavily and rubbing her throat.

“Pinkie, you’ve got to be the most insensitive person I’ve ever known,” said a nearby woman, who looked a lot like Pinkamena, except her mane was stone grey and she had an almost bored look on her face.

Starkiller couldn’t help but chuckle. ”All right, Maud, Pinkamena, let’s pack up and head into the city, drive these puppets out once and for all,” he said, to which the two women snapped a crisp salute.

Yeah, things have certainly changed since I was Brandon Cain. But, I suppose you want to hear the full story, now don’t you? Well, then let’s start from the beginning…

…

A young woman with long navy blue hair wearing a lab coats with a black shirt underneath, khakis, and brown shoes made her way through the hallways of the Darklight Research facility, heading toward an observation theatre. This was Twilight Sparkle,  the foremost scientific mind in the Crystal Empire, and on top of that, King Sombra’s lover.

“All right, what was so important that you just had to interrupt me and His Highness’s date?” barked Twilight, causing the other scientists to jump.

“D-Dr. Sparkle, we-we’ve found something. A strange creature, nobody knows what it is or where it came from-” stammered one of the scientists before Twilight cut him off.

“Skip to the details, Poindexter. I’m a very busy woman, and I haven’t got all night.”

“Right,” said Poindexter. “If you’ll just take a look out the window.”

Contempt evident on her face, Twilight made her way over to the window and looked out.

She felt her jaw drop like a sack of potatoes at what she saw.

Lying on the operating table was a strange creature wearing a mask and black armor with claws.

“What do you know so far?” asked Twilight.

“Preliminary scans show that the mask is some kind of respirator. That thing has machinery and cybernetics infused to its flesh and bone. Its mental capacity is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There’s a strong possibility that it can use psychic abilities,” explained Poindexter.

“And… it was found with those.”

Twilight made her way over to a nearby table, where ten different cylindrical objects were being examined. As Twilight looked at each object, she came to realize that each was unique in its own way. One of the objects looked like it had been cut in half, while another seemed to be a pike that looked as though it were held together with paper clips and God-knew what other office supplies.

“What are these, exactly?” asked Twilight.

“Some type of plasma weapon that takes the shape of a sword when activated. We’ve named them ‘plasma bludgeoning sticks’ for now,” explained Poindexter.

King Sombra could have use for a creature like this, thought Twilight. “Begin the testing. I want to know everything about this specimen.”

“Yes, Dr. Sparkle.”

…

Ugh… what happened? Last thing I remember was… thought the creature on the table as he began to stir. As he opened his eyes, several things caught his attention. One, he seemed to be breathing through a respirator of some sort. Two, he was wearing some kind of mask. Three, he was strapped down onto a table and there seemed to be a bunch of doctors surrounding him. Four, he felt like someone had infused machinery into his body. And five, he had somehow survived getting run over by a car going above the speed limit.

“Doctor! It’s waking up!” called one of the scientists, a male by the sound of it.

The creature frowned. It?

“Keep it restrained!” barked a second voice, this one female.

”Will somebody please tell me what’s going… wait, this isn’t my voice! What’s going on here?" said the creature.

The doctors took a step back from him, surprised. Apparently, no one had expected him to be able to speak.

One scientist, a woman with navy blue hair with a magenta stripe in it made her way forward. “Hello. I am Dr. Twilight Sparkle. King Sombra’s foremost scientific mind. I’m trying to discover what you are, how you are, and why you are,” she explained.

Sombra? Why does that name sound so familiar? the creature thought before speaking. ”Well, you can start by getting me a mirror.”

“Get him a mirror,” Twilight said to one of her scientists. The scientist held the mirror to the creature’s face, who looked at its reflection.

”What the actual fuck?!” the creature yelled in shock before attempting to move its head to look at the rest of its body. ”I don’t believe it! I… I...I’m actually Darth Starkiller,”

“So, your name’s Darth Starkiller? That’s certainly an interesting name,” said Twilight. “Anyways, once I’m finished studying you, I’ll be sending you to the Crystal Palace to meet King Sombra to discuss employment. You do know who Sombra is, right? Ruler of the Crystal Empire? Dark Lord and Master of Shadows?”

It was then that it clicked. This woman was named Twilight Sparkle, she worked for King Sombra, who ruled the Crystal Empire. There was only one place he could be. But, how’d he get there? But, more importantly, how stupid were these people if they thought he’d just kneel before Sombra?

”Yeah, I’ve heard of him… but, I’m going to have to decline that offer. Now, where’s my lightsabers?” said Starkiller.

Twilight made a tsking sound. “Shame. I’d have preferred to study you alive, but I guess I’ll have to settle for an autopsy,” she said. “Terminate the subject.”

One of the doctors prepared a needle that was almost certainly filled with some kind of poison and made to inject Starkiller with it. But, before he could do it, a powerful burst of energy emanated from Starkiller, shattering the table he was strapped onto and knocking everyone around him onto the ground.

How’d I do that? thought Starkiller as he pulled himself off of the ground. I guess I must have the powers and skills of the real Starkiller too, not just his body.

Starkiller then held up his hand and tried to mentally summon his weapons in the off chance they were nearby. Sure enough, six lightsabers and a light-pike came crashing through an overhead observation window. Quickly attaching the weapons onto his waist, Starkiller used a telekinetic push to break down the door leading out of the lab.

As Starkiller made his exit, Twilight made her way over to a nearby PA system and triggered the wide alert button. “We have an escaped specimen! Make sure it doesn’t get out of here alive!” she yelled.

…

“Okay, who triggered the alarm?” asked Achroma Burst, who was a woman with a rainbow-patterned hairstyle and two wings, one skyblue and feathered, the other gray and metallic, attached to her back. She was wearing a black leather trench coat, a black tanktop, torn up black pants with a black leather belt, and black leather boots.

“Wasn’t me,” said Pinkamena Pie, who wore a similar outfit to Achroma and had long pink hair that partially obscured her face.

“Not me,” said Maud Pie, who looked a lot like Pinkamena, but her hair was a dull stone grey and she had an almost bored expression on her face. She too wore an outfit like Achroma’s.

“Not Ah,” said Applejack, who had blonde hair and also wore the same outfit as everybody else, with the exception of a battered old stetson hat.

“Then who-” said Achroma before an announcement over the PA system cut her off.

”We have an escaped specimen! Make sure it doesn’t get out of here alive!”

The four women looked at each other. They’d received intel that Sombra’s scientists had obtain a bizarre specimen, and had been sent by Princess Celestia herself to investigate and if necessary, destroy it.

“Let’s go check it out,” said Achroma. The other women nodded and set out to find the escaped specimen.

…

Starkiller’s escape was impeded by a trio of armored soldiers, each of whom had a crystalline sword ready and waiting to strike the creature down.

”You guys sure you want to do this?” Starkiller asked the soldiers.

In response, one of the soldiers charged at Starkiller and swung his sword. Acting quickly, Starkiller blocked the attack with one of his lightsabers, this one with a blade of deep aqua, and quickly learned that the crystal swords were resistant against his lightsaber.

Well, this certainly made things a little more interesting, thought Starkiller as he Force Pushed the soldier away from him and followed up with a bit of lightning. The soldier exploded like a bomb upon contact with the ground.

Another guard was able to strike Starkiller from behind before blasting him with magic, sending him flying up across the hall.

Ah, crap. That was unexpected… come on, Bran- I mean, Starkiller, you can do this. Dark Side, anger, fear, hatred… thought Starkiller as he pulled himself off of the ground. Taking a breath, he focused on anger and hatred. Anger and hatred towards the soldiers for having the nerve to strike him and towards King Sombra and his subordinates for trying to force him into servitude.

Starkiller pulled himself off of the ground and threw his lightsaber. The weapon homed in on the  soldier who’d struck him and cut him cleanly in half before turning like a boomerang and returning to his clawed hand. The sole surviving guard then attempted to bum rush Starkiller, only to find himself being dangled in the air by an unknown force. Suddenly, invisible talons began to squeeze the soldier’s throat like a zit, and continued to do so long after the man had suffocated. Finally, with a sickening snap, Starkiller allowed the body to fall to the ground. Almost instantly, Starkiller felt a wave of complete and utter exhaustion wash over him as he doubled over, trying to catch his breath.  A voice spoke from nearby.

“Wow… that-that was incredible!”

Finding his second wind, Starkiller wheeled around with his lightsaber poised to strike to find four women standing there.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, same side, same side!” said Achroma defensively.

”I’ll believe that when I see it,” growled Starkiller.

“Okay… my name’s Achroma Burst. What’s yours?” asked Achroma, trying to sound calm.

”...Starkiller. Darth Starkiller,” said Starkiller, lowering his weapon ever so slightly.

“Okay, Darth, listen, we’re gonna help you get out of here, but then we need you to come with us,” said Achroma.

”And what makes you think I’ll do that?”

“Because of the entire legion of Crystal Empire soldiers that are stationed here. I’ll admit, you’re good, but some of the toys they’ve got here are pretty nasty,” explained Achroma.

Starkiller said nothing for a moment. ”Very well. Admittedly, I’m surprised I’m as good as I am. I just got this new body after all,” said Starkiller. ”However, details will have to wait. Right now, we gotta move.”

“Right you are,” said Achroma, and together, the group made their way through the facility, striking down any opposition in their path. Finally, they reached the exit of the facility.

“Okay, now let’s get out of here,” said Achroma as she kicked the door open.

Her face fell once she saw what was on the other side.

No more than three heavily armed mechs, each piloted by two soldiers, stood between them and freedom, along with a large squad of soldiers.

“Well… we’re fucked,” said Achroma.

”Not entirely, said Starkiller as he grabbed one of the lightsabers on his belt. ”I got this.”

“Are ya’ll crazy?!” said Applejack. “They’ll pound ya inta guacamole!”

”I don’t think so. Get down and stay out of sight,” said Starkiller.

The women reluctantly nodded and backed away. Starkiller took a breath and activated his weapon, causing a solid black blade to appear.

Dark Side, don’t fail me now, thought Starkiller as he entered battle.

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“Stand down now, or die.” Starkiller said, his voice echoing across the area, enhanced by the Force. His other armored hand reached out with the Force, causing a secondary lightsaber to fly into his grip. He thumbed the button, causing a shimmering emerald hued blade to burst forth. The hilt he used was of an older design, much like an ancient sword. For some reason, he recalled that he had picked up the schematics from a Sith Holocron. Crackling plasma burst forth from the sides, acting as a lethal crossguard.

The troops glanced at one another. A few wisely backed off, dropping their weapons on the ground, but the rest stood their ground. Starkiller smiled slightly as he rushed forward, Force Speed propelling him. His ebony blade lashed out, carving through the first two troopers, cleaving them in two.

The others opened fire with both magic and bullets, but his dual blades spun, filling the air with flashes of light, like at one of Vinyl Scratch’s raves. The bolts of magic deflected, either spinning off into the air or launching back at the ones who had fired, usually through their masks or into their chests. His blades danced, as he carved through the troopers, until four remained. They brought out their crystal swords, but were no match for the Sith Lord. His foot slammed into the chest of one, sending him back into his comrade. His weapons swung wide, cleanly severing their heads from their bodies.

Another soldier tried to rush him, but his arm was swiftly grabbed and his body pulled closer. Using the soldier as a human shield, Starkiller slammed his blade through the back of the soldier, and out the front of the last one. Turning his attention to the mechs, he simply raised his hand, curling it. The mechs levitated into the air, as the metal began to distort and buckle. The sound of whirring gears and motors could be heard. Swiftly closing his hand, the mechs became little more than clumps of crushed metal. He deactivated his sabers, and sheathed them.

Achroma and the others emerged from their hiding places.

“Ho...ly… shit,” said Achroma. “How the Hell did you do that?”

”I have… no…” Starkiller started to say, before he collapsed from the effort his exploits took.

Achroma and the others surrounded Starkiller and checked him over.

“He’s all right, he just fainted,” said Pinkamena.

“Can’t blame him after all that asskicking he did. But, that begs the question: how in the Hell did he pull all of that off?” asked Achroma.

The three women could only shrug in response.

“Well,” said Achroma. “Let’s get him back to base before reinforcements arrive. He can tells us everything when he wakes up.

Applejack picked up Starkiller’s lifeless form and the four women leaped the fence surrounding the facility, and made a break for it.